


Somnus

by Couragous



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Soulsborne - Fandom
Genre: Other, Soriku - Freeform, dont count on me finishing this Bros, soulsborne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 21:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21004154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Couragous/pseuds/Couragous
Summary: A little Kh soulsborne inspired au I wrote a bit back. There’s shadows, beasts and hunters. Somewhere in between is an unlucky writer sent to the capital of Somnus to study beasts. There in that city is a pair of hunters that will break the world in two.





	Somnus

Chapter 1

The sun was low in the sky, the cloud cover thick and smokey. The hunter found himself walking Somnus’ old streets, taking in the scourge of last night’s hunt. The brick roads were burned and still exerting heat. Houses sat destroyed. Buildings were left abandoned and stricken with gouges in their plaster shells and wooden skeletons.  
The sun would be sinking soon, Somnus had entered its autumn months and the burning red sun could no longer bare to keep itself up to watch the outbreaks of plague and awful turnings.  
A particular tower caught the hunter's gaze. It’s windows were hiked open and plants had crawled their way out.  
A young man had peaked out the rather large door and met his gaze. They held it for a heartbeat and then the man broke it, tucking a parcel against his stomach and making his way towards the hunter. Headed towards the market district no doubt. His dark hair was tucked up into a hat and he wore a rather nice, albeit dusty, old coat that was much too big for his small frame. His bifocals were offset and in desperate need of a repair.  
The hunter reached for him as they passed.  
“Excuse me-“  
“Don’t touch me,” the man hissed. He ducked away and tucked the parcel closer to himself.  
It didn't surprise him anymore. Hunters were looked down upon these days.  
He tucked his hands into his pants pockets and stalked off. Past the strange tower and past the church district. Namine would be waiting for him with hot pumpkin soup and that’s all that mattered.  
It wasn’t too far of a walk to the Elder Bridge Perimeter. Here the packed in houses looked down upon the city of Somnus and the capital of the king. The hunter unlocked his front door and slipped in.  
“Namine?” He called.  
He sat his pistol down on the den table.  
“Kitchen!”  
He ducked under the low doorway and watched Namine work.  
“Hello Riku!” She gave him a wave and brought a butchers knife down hard on the skinned flank of some animal, “dinner isn’t done yet, sorry. I just got this a few minutes ago from the farmer just out of town. Special delivery.”  
Her smile was so warm compared to how dreary the weather outside was.  
“Not a worry at all,” Riku dipped his head and leaned down into a seat. He nursed the healing gash on his side from the night before. “How’s his family?”  
“Good, very good, he says,” she tucked a blonde stand of hair behind her ear and wiped her hands on her smock. Her lithe fingers left behind bloody smears.  
“So, how was your patrol?”  
“Decent,” Riku huffed. “Pretty boring beside some kids mugging an old man.”  
“Ah yes,” she laughed, “sounds about right.”  
“Any letters from Kairi?”  
Namine shook her head and went back to cutting up the flank and pulling the bones away from its bleeding meat.  
“Odd.”  
“Very,” she continued, “I’m sure she’s alright though.”  
“Of course.”  
They sat in silence for a moment, other than Namine’s seasoning of the meat.  
“You know,” Riku spoke slowly, “I came across a very strange young man on the way home. His hands were bandaged up into his sleeves, I wonder why.”  
“Plague maybe?”  
“Possibly, his face wasn’t hidden though.”  
Namine hummed and shrugged before dropping the meat into a skillet on the wood stove. The smell of it filled the room and made Riku much more hungry then he’d already been. He shuffled uncomfortably.  
“Namine, do you think the gods still look on this town?”  
She whipped her gaze straight at him.  
“That’s a rather funny question, Mr. Brandt. I’m not quite sure I have an answer to that.”  
“It just makes me wonder, seeing a nurse like yourself chop meat like that,” he cracked a smile, “it’s pretty striking.”  
“Oh har har,” she crossed her arms, “I’m not a nun anymore I can do what I wish with whatever animal I feel like cooking.”  
“Ah of course!” He stuck his hands up in defence. “Of course.”  
She smirked and untied her smock. “So how was the hunt last night that you keep refusing to tell me about?”  
Ah, it was only a matter of time.  
“It destroyed a good chunk of town and the citizens are blaming it on the hunters.”  
“As always,” she sighed. “When are people going to realize it’s not your guys’ fault.”  
Riku scoffed. “Bold of you to assume that’s ever going to be a possibility.”  
“It could be.”  
“It could be,” he repeated.  
Namine gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Go wash up, you smell like death.”  
She walked back to her post beside the stove without another word.  
Riku stalked up the stairs and down the hall to his room and as he suspected, there was a clean pair of clothes folded neatly at the foot of the bed. Since Namine has begun to board with him, she always managed to find something presentable for him to wear at dinner. She was a holy woman once and always, always concerned with formality.  
He smiled and shrugged off his coat, not bothering to shut the room’s door. Namine would be busy awhile with dinner. Not that it would matter anyway, the rigged scars of his body had grown quite familiar with the woman’s healing magic.  
He stumbled into a new pair of trousers and almost crashed into the desk beneath his mirror. He caught a vase of half dead roses before it could hit the floor.  
“You alright?” She called from the floor beneath.  
“I’m fine!”  
Riku righted himself and the vase before pulling his shirt over his head, tossing it aside into the growing pile in the corner of his room.  
His eyes had caught on the portrait hanging above his bed. On the woman’s crimson hair and bunched, flowing dress. Kairi had looked so beautiful in that white gown. It made him smile to think a princess like herself was out there training alongside one of the most dangerous hunters he’d ever met, yet one of his most trusted. Lea Vangress was a wild man, but she proved she could handle herself.  
Riku pulled himself out of his stupor and pulled on his other shirt. He buttoned it as quickly as he could as he made his way to the other side of his room. He dug around for a brush in his dresser. He ran it quickly through his hair and tossed it aside. The six rings of the church’s bells rang out the hour. 

~~~

That night his legs had carried him to the Market District. He hoped to get more antiseptic and bullets, they were running low.  
The little shops and tables looked ghostly at this hour. There were only a few shops open, most of which were for hunters. Illuminated by their little lanterns, the keeps sold munitions and potions and everything in between. It was quiet and peaceful however. Contrasting the fact that many people associated Hunters with nothing more than rowdy destruction.  
The smallest rush of wind beside his bare arm made Riku turn. He watched a shadow sweep between the markets empty stalls. He patted his pockets and sighed, a knife was taken from the array sitting on his belt. He rolled his neck and followed after the little demon.  
To Riku’s surprise, the figure didn’t run, only weaved it’s way strategically away from the small crowd of people at the center of the market. It was headed toward the dark corner that led to the more catacomb like inner workings of the city. He walked as quiet as possible behind the little shadow.  
Riku followed him past the gates and into the Market District’s alleyways, where mediks and tarot workers ran their little machinations. Where man and hunter and criminal alike melted together until they were indistinguishable. Where was this odd little man taking him?  
They didn't walk long through these alleyways before the man spoke. His voice was young. “You’re not a very good hunter.”  
Riku stayed quiet.  
“If you’re wondering, I planned to return the knife,” the man turned around, wrapped hands on his hips, “I was just borrowing it for a moment.”  
“Good,” Riku laughed, “I was about to call you a terrible thief.”  
The man reared up, crossing his arms, “really?“ he tipped his head in just the right angle for Riku to see his face in the lantern light. It was hard to tell, but to the hunters surprise, it was the boy from the clock tower. All he was missing were his bifocals. “Are you so sure about your statement?”  
“Course I am, little thief,” Riku crossed his arms.  
“I stole your earring.”  
“No you didn’t.”  
The boy dug in his pocket and pulled out a ruby red gem fashioned like a rose. The little dangling chains dropping from it glinted in the lamp light. Riku’s hand flew up to his ear lobe.  
“You little shit,” he hissed.  
“Name’s Fridtjof.”  
“Brandt,” Riku retorted.  
“Well it was nice to meet you mister Brandt, but I must be on my way, I’ve an important event to attend to.”  
“My things?“  
He tossed over the little earring and kept on his ways.  
“That’s an expensive dagger-“  
“You’ll get it back,” he called over his shoulder. Riku could see the prick of a smile on the others face, “I’ll just need it a second. If you’d like to wait here, I’ll be back in just a few moments.”  
He turned down a corner before Riku could answer. He raced after Fridtjof, but he seemingly vanished. The only thing down the offshooting alley were stray dogs and half eaten rats.  
“I’m not waiting for you!”  
“Don’t have too,” Fridtjof voice echoed down the alley to him. The clicking of pistols carried with it. “Ten seconds, tops.”  
He counted off in his head, tapping his foot.  
“Ten seconds yeah, Djern Hüllde?” Good Hunter.  
Riku jumped, Fridtjof had popped up behind him, seemingly unarmed. The hunter backed away.  
“You speak Grinkallun?  
“I’m from the islands to the south,” Fridtjof pulled his hat off, displaying a short mess of wavy brown hair. It stuck up in odd angles.  
Riku’s eyes narrowed, “you don’t have an accent.”  
“Well Brandt, you’re not from around here either are you? Where’s your accent?”  
“How’d you-“  
“A good thief pays attention. That earring belongs to the princess of Radiant Garden. It’s the royal crest. And people from Somnus don’t have silver hair.”  
Riku stood, quietly taking the boy in. He couldn’t be older than twenty and he was oddly short for a Grikelle. His hands were folded in front of him. He had the hands of a writer, thin and bony.  
“Am I a good thief yet, Hüllde?” His pale eyes sparkled with a familiar mischief.  
“My knife?”  
“On your belt.”  
Riku’s hand strayed to it. The boy wasn’t wrong. The dagger was right where it was supposed to be.  
“How do you do that?”  
“Simple science,” Fridtjof smiled and gave a shallow bow. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve studies to attend to, unless you feel like escorting me?”  
The hunter scowled and kept pace. “You’ve no holsters, where’re those firearms?”  
“Now why in the Gods’ names would you think I’ve got firearms? I’m an innocent civilian.”  
“Your Boots?”  
Fridtjof shrugged, “could be?”  
“How come you’re so…” Riku’s hands fumbled.  
“Good at this?” The boy huffed, “The Southern Islands are a good place for practice. Boats are as easy as it comes.”  
Riku nodded.  
“What brings you to Somnus, Brandt?” Fridtjof tucked his hands into his coat pocket as he walked, “there’s not much here beside the festival and the capital. I’d rather live in the country personally.”  
“It’s uh, complicated. Hunters business’s.”  
“Ah, Hüllden sehrn.” Hunter's call.  
Riku gave him an odd side glance. How did this boy know an olde hunter’s motto?  
“How about you?”  
“Me?”  
“Did you get tired of the exotics?”  
Fridtjof gave a snort, “they’re not exotics where I’m from. Slaver ships and criminals are far from exciting. It isn’t the Queen’s Rift.”  
They quieted and as they entered the market square. The pair kept to the edge.  
“I like it here,” the boy smiled, “the clock tower’s nice.”  
“But the beasts-“  
“Ah saints, the beasts don’t bother me. I’ve got strong hunters like yourself to rely on.”  
“And those firearms,” Riku chuckled.  
“And the firearms.”  
They walked in a comfortable silence, other than Fridtjof’s little comments on things. He seemed to have a lot to say for someone priding themselves on silence. He’d point out little things, like the moths hovering around lamp posts or how the nights are so much crisper in Somnus. It wasn’t unwelcome, however. Riku found himself almost disappointed when they reached the clock towers steps and its encompassing doors.  
“Well, Brandt,” the boy huffed and stuck his hand out, “it was a pleasure.”  
“Riku,” The hunter met his hand and shook it. He was surprised by Fridtjof’s tight grip.  
The thief flashed a devilish smile.  
“Sora.”


End file.
